Nine Secrets of

Healthy Relationships

Love – Part Two

First United Pentecostal Church ~ Sunday, September 16, 2001

Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) 22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.

Galatians 5:22-23 / 1 Corinthians 13:1-7
Love / Love does not seek her own, is not selfish or self-centered
Joy / Loves does not rejoice in iniquity but rather rejoices in the truth
Peace / Love is not easily provoked, but is serene and stable
Patience
(KJV – longsuffering) / Love suffers long, perseveres, is patient
Kindness
(KJV – gentleness) / Love is merciful, thoughtful, and concerned; it envies not
Goodness / Love is great, gracious, and generous; it is kind and good
Faithfulness
(KJV – faith) / Love thinks no evil but has faith in God and others
Gentleness
(KJV – meekness) / Love is humble and gentle, does not vaunt itself
Self-control
(KJV – temperance) / Love is disciplined and controlled, does not behave unbecomingly

Two Misconceptions About Love:

1.  The world says love is a ______… but God says love is a matter of ______!

Eros / Sexual or sensual love
Storge / Family or natural love
Phile / Friendship or companionship love
Agape / God’s love

AGAPE LOVE:

·  It is a ______that commits itself to the well being of another, regardless of the ______of the one being loved.

·  We must have it in our lives as a ______for the other kinds of love in our lives, or they will never become all they can be.

·  It is not a love that we ______, but it is the love of God that He produces in us!

2.  The world says love is ______… but God says love is a matter of ______!

1 John 3:18 (NLT) Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.

A. Love is ______

·  Love is alive when it has ______

·  Love is dying when it is hurried

·  Love is dead when it cannot wait

Patience means I take the time to wait for someone else to change, to recover, to get motivated. Patience means I make allowance for someone’s faults.

B. Love is ______

·  Love is alive when it ______

·  Love is dying when it forgets

·  Love is dead when it ignores

Kindness means the ability to care for each other in the practical details of everyday life. Kindness means adapting and inconveniencing yourself.

·  We do not change our actions by first changing our ______; rather, our ______will change when we first change our actions!

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.